For years, Bayer has provided local contractors in Nebraska with the safety equipment they need to work in the company’s corn fields. The teenagers who “detassel” the fields, an essential step in producing high-yield corn seeds, require gloves, glasses and hats with netting to protect their faces from cuts. 

But, this year, the multinational company has shifted that cost, which can be in the thousands of dollars, to contractors. Bayer confirmed the change, which was previously unreported, to Investigate Midwest.

The safety equipment cost is the latest in a series of changes Bayer has forced onto the business model of local detasseling contractors in Nebraska. It banned the use of 13-year-olds, a large part of the workforce. A few years ago, it also stopped covering contractors’ worker compensation insurance.

At the same time, Bayer has relied more on out-of-state contractors who hire H-2A, or foreign visa, labor. Since the changes started several years ago, the number of local contractors who hire teenagers — a few weeks of detasseling is seen as a rite of passage — has decreased dramatically, according to state data.

Using foreign labor could save Bayer money, but it could also mean less money circulating in the local economy.

Bayer confirmed in a statement to Investigate Midwest it was now requiring contractors to cover safety costs: “Bayer requires independent companies to purchase, provide, monitor, and ensure that their employees are complying with Bayer safety standards. Expenses for PPE and other components are taken into account as part of our annual contract agreements with these independent companies.”

It said no longer allowing 13-year-olds is in line with the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, which its U.S. operations must follow. It did not address a question about whether it favored hiring H-2A contractors over local ones.

In a 2019 internal slideshow, uncovered by Nebraska Public Media, Bayer made the case that employing H-2A labor was easier and possibly more cost-efficient for the company. Bayer, following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, controls about a third of the corn industry in the U.S., according to U.S. Department of Agriculture research.

In the past decade, the number of local farm contractors hiring teenagers in Nebraska has dropped by 50%, according to data from the Nebraska Department of Labor. In 2015, there were 31 farm contractors employing teenagers. In 2024, that figure is 16.

In 2019, one posted on Facebook: “As hard as it is to say this … WE ARE NOT RUNNING A CREW. For various reasons the seed companies are cutting back on their contractors and we happen to be one of them.” The “hardest part” would be “not seeing all the kids year after year.” In 2022, another contractor posted it was “sad to let you know we will no longer be detasseling. Thanks for all your hard work and fun memories.”

Investigate Midwest attempted to speak to several local contractors, including the ones who posted on Facebook. Most either did not return requests for comment or declined interview requests in order to maintain their relationship with Bayer.

Concerns with U.S. H-2A program recruiting requirements

The situation with Bayer in Nebraska highlights a potential issue with the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A program, which facilitates agriculture employers bringing foreign workers to the U.S. for seasonal jobs.

Employers wanting to use foreign labor must prove no U.S. residents in the area want farm work. Employers need to show how they recruited U.S. residents and explain why they were or were not hired.

But, in Nebraska, local contractors have said plenty of teenagers are willing to work a job teens have done for decades. Despite that, the federal labor department has continued to approve the use of foreign labor for detasseling in Nebraska.

Bayer seems to be aware of the issue. In the slideshow, it said a “con” of hiring H-2A workers was the requirement to prove foreign labor was necessary: “What if we choose to exclude some legal labor, such as local youth?”

When asked about the situation in Nebraska, a federal labor department spokesperson said to contact a state agency. Each state has a “state workforce agency,” which is at least partially funded by federal grants, that assists in overseeing the H-2A program. Among other duties, the state agency assists in the U.S. recruiting requirement by running an online job board.

“In the event a US worker is rejected for hire, the individual can file a complaint with the Nebraska Department of Labor,” the spokesperson said in an email.

When asked about its role, the Nebraska labor department said it receives “limited federal funding to assist” with the H-2A program. “The H-2A program is largely administered” by the federal labor department, which is “the federal authority authorized to make petition determinations” — that is, to approve which employers are allowed to bring foreign workers into a state.

“We are aware of concerns expressed about recruiting practices,” it said in an email. “With any complaints, we investigate those that are within our jurisdiction and report complaints to the appropriate federal enforcement agency for further investigation as needed.”

Starting in January, seed companies must report to the state how many of their acres have been detasseled by either H-2A labor or local teens. 

In the internal slideshow, Bayer said it is actually cheaper to employ local teenagers to detassel than to hire H-2A labor. Nebraska teenagers can be paid minimum wage, but H-2A workers are required to make much more — this is to incentivize companies to hire U.S. residents. In Nebraska, H-2A workers must be paid a minimum of $18.32.

However, Bayer would save in other ways if it used H-2A labor, according to the slideshow. H-2A employers handled most aspects that Bayer sometimes had to do: They transported workers to and from corn fields. They paid for their own workers’ compensation insurance. And they oversaw worker safety.

While not mentioned in the slideshow, many H-2A workers often are not paid all they are owed. In 2023, the labor department returned more than $400,000 in back wages to H-2A workers, according to federal data. Surveys by the advocacy organization Centro De Los Derechos Del Migrante, Inc. in 2020 suggest more than 40% of participants in the H-2A program were not paid what they were promised.

In 2018, one of the H-2A contractors that Bayer consistently hires in Nebraska was fined for not paying its workers full wages, according to federal records. The contractor, based in Florida, owed workers about $7,000 in back wages. The contractor, Triple M. Fruit, did not respond to a request for comment.

The wages H-2A workers do make are spent in their home countries, primarily Mexico. Many Mexicans earn very little, and they can make much more in a short amount of time in the U.S. Many families rely on the money made through the H-2A program.

While the money can be good for H-2A workers, it means there could be less money in the state and local economies, though the impact might be minimal given detasseling’s short season.

Nebraska teenagers would likely spend their earnings at local restaurants and movie theaters or save for a car. Spending locally would have a multiplier effect, said Jay Parsons, the director of the Center for Agricultural Profitability at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The money paid to a vendor for food, for example, could then be used to procure more local goods.

H-2A employers might help the local economy a little. Out-of-state employers will often put workers in motels nearby worksites for short stays.

Teenagers are “going to go and spend that money in the economy, and it’s going to cycle more than once. People spend it over and over,” Parsons said. “That might not happen with the H-2A labor, or at least it would be minimal.”

‘H2A visa workers taking local jobs??’

Bayer’s internal slideshow, from February 2019, shows the company contemplating a path forward on detasseling labor. Ultimately, it concluded H-2A labor was likely the best economic option for the company.

With “traditional” labor, which includes teenagers and domestic migrant farmworkers, Bayer often had to provide direct oversight, including paying for workers’ compensation insurance and transportation, according to the slideshow. But it had none of those costs when it hired H-2A, or what it called “independent,” labor.

“Overall, we have observed a decline in both local and traditional migrant labor, mostly due to other opportunity/changing attitudes,” the slideshow reads. “That is why going forward traditional labor models will be replaced by INDEPENDENT (sic) labor models that offer more full service advantages. The opportunity for traditional labor to convert to an independent labor model is available, but much of the void may be replaced by the H-2A labor source.”

One plus of using teenagers was that the federal labor department, which oversees workplace safety, would rarely visit worksites: “DOL inquiries tend to be less intrusive (if at all).”

But a downside was the potential for a public relations nightmare. Also, teenagers, in Bayer’s view, “tend to be less efficient with productivity & quality.”

Not only were H-2A workers more productive, they could do other jobs, such as planting earlier in the season, according to the slideshow. Bayer estimated that more acres could be detasseled with fewer workers: “Productivity/Quality efficiencies equate to a 3-4X acre per worker/ less headcount to manage/ less safety exposure.”

Some potential pitfalls existed. If Bayer hired more H-2A labor, it could lead to “potential negative publicity — H2A visa workers taking local jobs?? (sic),” the slideshow stated.

Local detasseling companies soon saw it exactly that way. In their view, plenty of U.S. residents were ready — and willing — to detassel.

Nebraska contractors sound alarm to Ricketts on H-2A labor

In April 2019, a group of local detasseling contractors sent a letter to then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican. They detailed their frustration at losing acres to out-of-state contractors employing H-2A workers.

Despite having a ready workforce and requesting more acres, the local contractors were detasseling fewer acres, the letter reads. To the local contractors, there seemed to be enough work available, and they cited two incidents as evidence.

In 2018, an H-2A crew was delayed at the border, according to the letter: “Local Nebraska companies with no notice were easily able to handle the thousands of acres the H-2A crew was supposed to do.” In another case, a local crew was told to stop working. An H-2A crew had arrived, and the local contractor was told “the H-2A crew needs to be ‘kept busy’ (i.e., given work to justify bringing them here),” according to the letter.

One particular grievance was what local contractors called a “loophole.” While H-2A labor contractors had to prove there was no willing local labor, seed companies — the ultimate beneficiaries of detasseling — were under no such requirement.

“Why doesn’t the seed corn agribusiness have any responsibility to prove that there are not enough U.S. workers before they offer contracts to H-2A crews? These agribusinesses continue to contract with alien crews stating it is the alien crew’s responsibility to comply with (H-2A regulations) and not theirs,” the contractors wrote. “Natural resources are being used in Nebraska to grow seed corn for international agribusinesses, and through the production of that product, Nebraskans should benefit.”

No seed companies are named in the letter, which Investigate Midwest obtained. In addition to Bayer, a handful of other seed corn businesses that require detasseling labor operate in Nebraska. This includes Corteva Agriscience, which controls about 40% of the U.S. corn market; Syngenta, which controls 5%; and Remington Seeds.

There’s no evidence Corteva has implemented the same changes as Bayer. In 2019 promotional material produced by the state of Nebraska on the detasseling industry, a local Corteva manager said the company aims to “provide a lot of (teenage) workers a meaningful, hopefully fun, work experience.”

Syngenta did not respond to a request for comment. Remington Seeds does not have a corporate media contact on its website. A receptionist for a local Nebraska manager said the company did not engage in media requests.

Later in 2019, Ricketts submitted his own letter to the labor department. The agency, under former President Donald Trump, was in the process of streamlining parts of the H-2A application process. In the letter, submitted as a public comment, Ricketts said he supported the changes but proposed adding a regulation.

He made the same distinction as the local contractors: The seed companies benefited from the detasseling, but they were not legally responsible for adhering to the H-2A program’s provisions. The situation had led to local companies missing out on work, he wrote: “In 2019, Nebraska detasseling companies had 710 employees wait listed, but certifications were still granted for H-2A workers to perform detasseling.”

To address this situation, Ricketts said contractors requesting H-2A labor should include in their applications an affidavit from the seed company they’re working for. The affidavit would attest that the seed company “solicited bids for the work and no bids were available that did not utilize H-2A workers.”

Ricketts said his proposal was in line with Trump’s Executive Order 13788, “Buy American and Hire American.” The proposal was not included in the final rule, parts of which were implemented in 2022.

Ricketts is now a U.S. Senator. His office did not return a request for an interview.

The post In new blow to corn contractors, Bayer requires they provide their own safety equipment appeared first on Investigate Midwest.